


the daylight seems to want you just as much as i want you

by lazyfish



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-06-19 14:10:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15511587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: Five people Daisy Johnson could have woken up next to in the Framework.





	1. lincoln

Daisy wakes up in the bathtub. It’s disorienting, because the moment she wakes up, she’s sliding down, and she gulps in a quick breath before she’s submerged beneath the soapy water.

Bracing herself on the edges of the tub, she pushed back up again, shaking the water off her hair as she begins looking around the bathroom for clues about her new life. There’s a half-used bar of soap resting in the soap tray, and an array of shampoo bottles, one of which is the shampoo she used to use, back when -

Something beeps, and Daisy turns to see a cell phone resting nearby. Apparently the Framework version of herself is just as much of a workaholic as the real version, which is… it _should be_ comforting, but it’s not, really.

She reads the message, squinting at it. _Wake up your boyfriend. We’re being called in_.

The Framework was made to fix mistakes, to allow people to live their perfect lives, which meant… but…

Daisy’s chest suddenly feels very tight, and she steps out of the bathtub in a daze. She wraps a towel around herself, but doesn’t bother trying to get dry. There’s a bathrobe hanging on the back of the door, but she doesn’t want to waste a single second if she can help it. She just steps out of the bathroom, into an unfamiliar hallway, looking for signs of _him_.

She opens the first door she sees, and there’s a bed. There’s a body in the bed, too, and…

“Lincoln?” Her voice comes out hoarser than she would have liked, but Daisy doesn’t blame herself. There’s a copy of _The Lancet_ lying on the bureau, and…

“Hey, Daisy.” Lincoln sits up, yawning.

He’s alive. He’s right there, in front of her, and Daisy isn’t sure whether she wants to laugh, or cry, or, or -

Lincoln gets out of the bed, padding over and giving her a sleepy one-armed hug. That’s exactly what she wants - just to stand here and hug him and let him be close to her.

She has a mission, Daisy tries to remind herself. She needs to be finding the rest of the team, and getting them out, and…

“Babe,” Lincoln says, laughing. “You’re a million miles away.”

“Sorry.” Daisy shakes herself a little. She can’t let Lincoln know that she’s not _his_ Daisy. She wants to be, desperately, but this isn’t real.

It feels like losing him all over again.

“We’re being called in,” she says. “To work.”

“Damn,” Lincoln says with a sigh. “And here I was thinking we’d actually get a day off.”

Daisy manages a smile at that. Lincoln lets go of her shoulders, stretching as he moves towards the closet in the corner. He pulls out a pair of dark blue scrubs, and looks over his shoulder at her when she stays still.

“Much as I love this sight, Dais, I don’t think the hospital will approve of you coming in naked. Even tech support has standards.” He grins at her, blue eyes bright with humor, and she just can’t stop the feelings that continue rolling over her like waves. Joy and sadness, hope and despair, and so much _want_.

Daisy manages to get dressed while Lincoln does, only finding herself distracted when he strips off his sleep shirt and replaces it with his scrub top. He catches her looking, and winks.

“You wanna drive?” Lincoln asks, grabbing car keys from the bedside table.

“No, you can,” Daisy answers. She has no idea where they are, or how to get to the hospital from there. She’s still trying to process Lincoln being there at all.

“You feeling okay?” Lincoln asks, furrowing his brow.

“Yeah, just… tired,” Daisy lies. It’s one of the worst lies she’s ever told in terms of believability, but Lincoln just looks at her with a stupid, soft smile, and nods.

“Okay. We can go to bed early tonight.”

Daisy smirks. “When has that ever worked?”

Lincoln laughs, bright and loud, and all she wants to do is bottle that laugh, and take it back home with her.

“I love you, my Daisy flower,” he says. Lincoln kisses her cheek and grabs her hand. “C’mon! We’ll be late!”

Daisy follows him, and tries not to think of how hard it’ll be to let go again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I get irrationally angry every time I remember that of all the people to wake up next to, my child had to endure Grant Ward. Here. I fixed it. (And I will fix it four more times, so strap in.)


	2. robbie

Daisy wakes up, and she’s not exactly sure where she is because it’s dark as sin. Her head is  _ pounding _ . Or, actually… Nope, someone is actually pounding on something. Her eyes adjust to the darkness around her, and her jaw drops open.

She’s in the back of her van, and there’s no light because she had taped cardboard over the windshield and front windows. Does Framework Daisy not need to drive the van? She’s really confused by all of this, because real Daisy used the van for everything - especially transportation.

And someone is  _ still _ knocking on her damn door! Daisy stoops over so she can open the back doors of the van. The sun very nearly blinds her, and she groans.

“‘Bout damn time.” Daisy blinks.  _ Robbie?  _ Okay. She can deal with this. Robbie Reyes is even in her fake life, and that’s a little concerning given the way she feels about him (because, hello, when you look at someone who you have purely platonic feelings for, you don’t feel like you’re about to puke up your heart), but there are worse alternatives. 

“Gabe missed the bus. Can you drive him to school for me?” Robbie asks.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Daisy answers. Apparently Framework Daisy and Framework Robbie are friends? Like, real friends and not just vigilante-friends. Which, again, is totally okay, but also not what she expected.

“Thanks, babe.” Robbie grins at her.

Okay. Hold the phone. Are she and Robbie more than friends? In the Framework, that is. Thing is, Daisy can’t exactly ask him that, because asking someone if they’re your boyfriend is really weird, especially if they actually are your boyfriend. 

“You know,” Robbie says, sticking his hands in his pockets. “If you actually moved in with us instead of just parking the van in our driveway, Gabe might miss the bus less.”

Moving in together was on the table? This moves Daisy’s boyfriend-o-meter a few ticks up, because there are few instances she can imagine someone asking their friend to move in. Unless it’s a money thing, considering Daisy’s van days were not her richest days ever. 

“Not signing up to be a human alarm clock,” Daisy says instead.

“Told him you’d say something like that,” Robbie’s smile just gets bigger as he shakes his head at her. He throws his keys at her, and Daisy’s so startled by the gesture that she almost drops them, fumbling wildly before getting a grip on the key ring. Real Robbie would never voluntarily relinquish his keys to anyone, let alone her.

Gabe rolls out from the house, grinning at her. “Margarita!” He half-says, half-sings to her. “Time to take me to school!”

Daisy rolls her eyes at him. “I know you missed the bus on purpose, Gabriel.” She actually knows nothing of the sort, but Robbie’s comment, paired with the obvious fondness Gabe has for her (she has her own nickname!) makes it a pretty safe bet. And, if she’s trying to act normal, casual is better, right?

“Me? S oy un ángel, Margarita.” Gabe flutters his eyelashes at her. Even though Daisy doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish, she knows that look - she’d used it on the nuns a hundred billion times as a child.

“Demonio, Gabe,” Robbie laughs, clapping his brother on the shoulder. 

“Daisy doesn’t think so,” Gabe teases back. 

“Well, Daisy thinks  _ I’m _ a good boyfriend, so can we really trust her judgement?” Robbie asks, still laughing.

“I never said I thought you were a good boyfriend, Roberto,” Daisy says, tossing her hair over her shoulder. It’s true, because that wasn’t  _ her _ , but it’s also probably true in the sense that her Framework self never said that in quite so many words. At least that solves the question of whether they’re together or not.

“You wound me,  _ Margarita _ .” Daisy huffs at the nickname, because she’s pretty sure that’s what Robbie’s expecting, given the tone of his voice. 

“C’mon, scamp,” Daisy says, jumping out of the van and ruffling Gabe’s hair. “Before you’re  _ actually _ late for school.”

“What, no kiss?” Robbie asks as she walks past him to the Charger, which is parked next to her van. 

“Nope,” Daisy says, popping the p. She’s a little worried her heart will give out if she kisses Robbie right now. Besides, he’ll know if she kisses him differently, right? She can’t blow her cover.

“I would actually like to get to school on time, so I’m gonna have to go with Daisy on this one,” Gabe says with a smirk. Robbie rolls his eyes as he helps Gabe into the backseat of the car, and Daisy can’t help but smile at the easy affection between the two brothers - between all three of them, actually.

It’s not helping her confusion about her feelings for real Robbie, but… she can cross that bridge when she gets to it.

“Okay, kiddo,” Daisy says as she turns the key in the ignition. “Ready for a test?”

Gabe groans in the backseat, but leads Daisy to his school without getting them lost. Daisy sits in the parking lot for a long time after that, thinking. She still needs to find Simmons, and the rest of the team, and fix this whole mess.

But first, she needs to figure out how to get out of this parking lot. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You saw this coming, right? This was super obvious?


	3. trip

Daisy wakes up in a bed. Sunlight slants through the window, spilling across her face. She grumbles, turning away from the brightness, when a familiar laugh cuts through the silence.

“C’mon, girl,” Trip says, reaching over to grab her around the waist. “It’s eight o’clock. We should’ve been up an hour ago.”

“Hmmmph,” Daisy mumbles, her brain still too groggy to fully process what’s happening to her. Trip leans over and kisses the back of her neck softly, and it’s  _ then _ that Daisy well and truly wakes up.

Trip.

She rolls back over, and finds a pair of chocolate brown eyes staring at her with a familiar warmth. “Good morning, Skye.”

A tear slides out of Daisy’s eye before she can stop it. It’s been such a long time since anyone’s called her that with such tenderness, and even though she’s still  _ Daisy _ , she doesn’t mind being Skye so much, as long as Trip is the one calling her that

“Woah, hey girl,” Trip says, his thumb brushing under her bottom eyelid to wipe the tear away. “What’s the matter? I don’t like Mondays either, but we don’t need to cry.”

She ducks forward, burying her head in his T-shirt. Hugging someone is kind of hard when you’re in bed together, so this is the next-best thing. Trip smells like fresh-cut grass and clean cotton and a little like gunpowder - different than she remembers, but still sweet and clean and wonderful.

“Skye?” Trip asks, more concerned than before. “What’s wrong, babe?”

She can’t find the words. What’s wrong is Trip is dead, and what’s wrong is she killed him, and what’s wrong is they never  _ got _ this. She and Trip had been a half-finished sentence, a full stop where there should have been a semicolon. She hadn’t even really allowed herself to consider how she had felt about him until after he was already gone, and it  _ sucked _ because the people she loved just kept getting hurt, kept dying - and for what? For her?

She wasn’t worth dying for, and Trip had been the first to do it.

“ _ Skye _ .” Trip’s voice brings her back to herself abruptly. “I’m going to call you in sick today, okay?” Daisy hadn’t realized that she was shaking until he squeezed her gently. At least the whole building wasn’t shaking, though.

Oh. If Trip is alive then she doesn’t have her powers. That makes sense. 

Trip gets out of the bed, and Daisy can’t even appreciate the sight of him walking away because she’s still so entirely fucked up by this. She hears his voice distantly, probably making the phone call he had promised, but she’s still grappling with the reality of all of this.

And the un-reality of it, because as real as it feels now… it’s not. And that makes her want to cry all over again.

By the time Trip is back, her breathing has quieted somewhat, but she still feels entirely off-kilter. Daisy doesn’t know why she didn’t consider that the dead could be living again in the Framework, which gives her an entirely different jolt of realization - that the living could be dead.

Panic begins to surge again as she wonders who’s gone. She keeps trying to remind herself that it’s not real, but Daisy feels like she’s losing her grip. Fuck, fuck, fuck -

“Skye,” Trip whispers. “Honey, talk to me.” His arms surround her in warmth and in that foreignly familiar scent, and Daisy lets herself relax, just a little bit. Having a panic attack isn’t going to help her, or anyone else. She has a mission she needs to complete, and she can’t do that if she’s freaking out.

But suppressing her emotions? Not the way to go. She’s tried that before and it is not top of her list things to do again. 

So she lets herself cry. She doesn’t know what she’s going to tell Trip when it’s over, how she’s going to explain all of this, but - but it has been so long since she’s trusted someone to hold her when she’s crying, to protect her when she’s weak, and  _ oh _ , how she misses Trip. He rocks her back and forth, voice low and soothing as he tries to comfort her without knowing why his whatever (are they married? Daisy wonders if it’s bad that dimly, in the back of her head, she wishes for them to be married) is crying. 

The angle of the sunlight through the window has shifted dramatically when she’s finished crying, but Daisy doesn’t care. She’s kind of pissed at herself for wasting so much of her time with Trip crying on him, but it’s a necessary evil.

She wipes away the last of her tears, eyes puffy and red, turning her face up to look at him.

“It’s just like that sometimes, huh?” Trip asks, accepting that she’s not going to tell him what’s wrong. Daisy nods miserably. 

She decides to test out her voice, and takes a tremulous breath in. “I love you, you know that?” It’s not what she meant to say, but damnit, she’s glad that she said it. Even if she had never quite been sure when she had him, she  _ loves _ him. If not as a lover, then as a friend. And she hadn’t gotten to say goodbye.

“Of course, Skye,” he answers, running his fingers through her hair. “I’ve always known that, girl.”

Daisy sighs. She feels like a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. 

She loves him, and he knows. He’s always known. If nothing else, she has that.

And for just a little while longer, she has him, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no shame in admitting I literally cried while writing this. Please give me tissues I need them


	4. may

Daisy wakes up in the middle of a kitchen, and immediately she smells something burning. She blinks, taking in her surroundings, before realizing that she  _ really _ needs to address whatever’s burning. Daisy lurches into action, realizing that there’s pancakes cooking (burning) on the stove. She grabs the spatula that’s helpfully on the counter beside the stove, performing a sloppy flip. It’s not enough to save the pancake, though - it’s charred beyond recognition.

The heavy fall of footsteps down a staircase distracts Daisy from her predicament, and she furrows her brow when she sees who enters the kitchen.

“May?”

The older woman looks just as confused at Daisy’s question. “Been awhile since I’ve heard  _ that _ ,” she says with a chuckle. “Have I done something wrong?”

“Uh…” Daisy is speechless for perhaps the first time in her life. “Nope. Nothing wrong. Just - the pancakes.” She gestures helplessly with the spatula towards the ruined pancake. “Got lost in my head.” She shrugs. 

“Don’t you always?” May smiles at her, a gentle, affectionate smile that Daisy still isn’t quite used to seeing. Her stomach flips, not altogether unpleasantly, and Daisy takes that as a sign that she needs to turn back to the stove.

“Trashcan…” she mutters to herself, trying to find where she can discard her failed attempt at a pancake. Figures that even in the Framework she’s a shit cook.

“Right here,” May says, sliding the garbage bin over to where Daisy’s standing. 

“Thanks,” Daisy says sheepishly. “As you can probably tell, I am  _ extremely _ scatterbrained today.” She dumps the half-gloopy, half-burned attempts at pancakes into the bin, and leans over to the bowl of batter that had been set next to the spatula.

“Today and every day,” May teases, not unkindly. She seems lighter somehow, less burdened. She’s still dressed in all black, which is good - Daisy’s not sure she could handle seeing May in brightly colored clothing. Even if she knows, in her head, that this is a separate reality from her own, some things just shouldn’t be. 

“Think they’ll be done before I have to head out?” May asks, sitting at the kitchen table and stretching out like a cat. 

Daisy checks the oven for a clock. It’s quarter til nine, so she’s going to assume that May is leaving in fifteen minutes. “Depends on if I mess them up again,” Daisy answers. She’s not confident in her cooking skills, and she doesn’t want May to go to work hungry. Where does May work, anyways? Where does  _ she _ ? This is all entirely too confusing. She had not prepared herself for the idea of domesticity, much less domesticity with May, who is her mentor and her -

_ Okay, we’re not thinking about that, Daisy.  _ She was not going to think about confusing things, nope nope nope.

Daisy pours the batter out in a shape resembling a circle, resolutely keeping her back to May as she tries to figure out what the hell is going on here. She probably doesn’t work the same place as May, otherwise she would’ve said when  _ we _ head out, but Daisy doesn’t really want to miss a day at work if she can help it - that’ll be suspicious, and she’s sure that AIDA will be watching out for the SHIELD operatives acting strangely, so she can smash them to smithereens before they become problematic.

“Daisy?” May asks. 

“Focusing on the pancakes!” She chirps as an excuse to whatever question she’s totally missed May asking. “Want you to be able to eat, y’know?”

Daisy doesn’t turn around to see the look on May’s face at the pretty obvious lie. If Framework May is anything like real May, she’s already seen through it. So much for not acting suspicious.

“Actually,” May says. The chair scrapes and Daisy guesses she’s standing. “I’ll grab breakfast on the way to work.” There’s a warm, solid presence at her back, and then lips pressed against her cheek. “Try not to burn the house down, honey.”

“Yeah,” Daisy mumbles, cheeks burning. May backs away, and then Daisy is left alone in the kitchen, with many more questions than she thought she’d have - which is saying something.

No matter - it’s time to get to work. She needs to figure out who she is, what resources she has, and how the hell she can find Jemma. Other things can wait… can’t they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can choose to read this as either romantic or mother/daughter - whatever floats your boat. :)


	5. hunter (and bobbi)

Daisy wakes up in a bathroom, leaning against the counter. She feels warmer than usual, and wonders if she’s got a fever or something. Leave it to her to be sick in the Framework, when she has a mission to do.

It doesn’t take her more than a moment to realize she’s definitely not feverish. Her body is flushed, but it’s more of a post-coital flush.

Who the hell is she having sex with in the Framework? Daisy has a short list of suspects, but it’s also entirely possible that she’s messing around with someone she’s never even met in the real world. Which is okay, and probably going to be a lot less mortifying for her when she gets out of the Framework, but also… what the hell is she supposed to say to them? At least she doesn’t have a ring on her finger or anything. She’s not sure she could handle a husband - or a wife, or a fiancé, or a fiancée.

Daisy looks at herself in the mirror, attempting to straighten the mess of her hair. It still looks more ruffled than usual when she’s finished, but nothing like the rat’s nest it had been a minute ago. After taking stock of the rest of her body, she finds that she’s recently cleaned - well, everything except for her hair, it seems. She has on an old pair of sweats that are oddly familiar, and a tank top that’s a size too big - and no bra. Everything is just beyond the grasp of her recognition, even though she’s seen it before.

She straightens herself one last time, trying to look confident and like herself. Her partner can’t know that she’s not the same person who left the bedroom.

Daisy nearly chokes on her own spit when she sees who’s lounging in the bed.

“Bobbi?” She takes a breath. “...Hunter?”

“Ooh, what did I do?” Hunter asks, cocking his head at her.

“N-nothing.” Daisy lies. “I just, uh… So we’re like… roommates, right?” Daisy asks awkwardly. She cannot imagine a single other explanation for this scenario, because Hunter and Bobbi are obviously together, if Hunter’s arm around Bobbi’s waist is any indication. 

Hunter looks at Bobbi, and they both seem somewhat amused.

“Do you normally sleep with your roommates, love?” Hunter asks. His eyes are sparkling with familiar amusement.

“I mean, yes,” Daisy answers, voice stilted. She hasn’t had many roommates thanks to van living, but she’s definitely slept with more of them than not.

“...You know, I should have seen that coming.” Hunter shrugs his shoulders carelessly. “I mean, I’ve always thought we were a little more than roommates who fuck, but what do I know?” Suddenly the nonchalant demeanor doesn’t seem so nonchalant anymore.

“So then we’re dating?” Daisy guesses again.

“I thought that was kind of clear from the whole ‘we’re dating’ conversation we had last month, but…” Bobbi trails off uncertainly. “Do you not  _ want _ to be dating?”

Holy shit. She’s been in the Framework for like two minutes and she’s already ruining her Framework-self’s life by breaking up with her boyfriend! And her girlfriend! Because apparently Framework Daisy has a hell of a lot more game than real Daisy, because real Daisy would never in a million years be able to cinch two significant others. Especially not Bobbi and Hunter, because for all of their sometimes annoying bickering, those two were  _ smoking _ . 

“Well, here’s the thing…” Daisy says, wondering if it’s wise or not to tell Hunter and Bobbi that she’s not actually  _ her _ . Probably not, she decides. 

“I’m going to go,” Hunter announces abruptly, cutting off whatever Daisy was going to say. He unwraps his arm from around Bobbi, throwing his legs over the side of the bed and standing jerkily. At least he’s not naked, Daisy thinks dimly as he strides towards the entrance of the bedroom.

She stops him before he can get to the door. Daisy’s at a loss for what to do now, her body the only thing between Hunter and the exit.

“Stop being so melodramatic,” she whispers, reaching up to touch his face with a tenderness she didn’t know she possessed. 

It’s in that moment that Daisy realizes how much she’s missed Bobbi and Hunter. Most days she doesn’t think about them at all; she’s learned through the years that if you ignore something, it can’t hurt that much. There have been so many things that have hurt her over and over, and she didn’t want to add Bobbi and Hunter to that list. Now, though, it seems inevitable. She misses Bobbi’s smiles and Hunter’s easygoing humor and how they both let her just  _ be _ . They’ve both learned how to love without expectation, and Daisy needs that, especially now when everyone seems to want something from her.

So, Daisy does something stupid: she kisses Hunter. It’s not something she’s ever thought about doing before - Hunter had either been annoying, or Bobbi’s, or both - but Daisy regrets that she’s never thought of it, because the man knows how to kiss.

Bobbi clears her throat, and Daisy blushes. Woops. Maybe she had gotten a little carried away. Or a lot carried away, given that kissing anyone had never been on her agenda while in the Framework.

“Cold feet are my thing, remember?” Daisy asks. She doesn’t need to know much about the Framework version of herself to know that’s the truth. She’s always had a thing with commitment. 

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Hunter mutters, wrapping his arms around Daisy’s waist. She’s not used to the gesture, but at the same time, it feels easy to fall into. She lays her head against Hunter’s chest, letting out a soft sigh. It’s been too long since she’s had someone to hold, and it’s comforting even if it isn’t what she expected. 

“Dais?” Bobbi asks softly. “I just got a text. I know it’s a lot to ask, but…” She trails off.

“Lay it on me, Barbara.” Daisy says, backing away from Hunter to look at Bobbi.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. called. They need your help.” Bobbi’s voice is just above a whisper, and she looks around the room nervously, as if she’s expecting someone to come crashing through the door.

“Yeah, yeah,” Daisy agrees hastily. Getting into S.H.I.E.L.D. will help her find Jemma, which is good.

“Great.” Bobbi smiles. “We’d better get going sooner rather than later, then.”

Daisy nods her agreement, noticing the frown on Hunter’s face only when she glances back at him. 

“Stay safe, okay?” Hunter says as Bobbi begins pulling on clothes that are more appropriate for a jaunt to S.H.I.E.L.D. 

“Of course,” Daisy agrees. She realizes a little belatedly that she also needs to get changed. “I won’t die out there or anything.”

Hunter’s lips quirk into a smile. “Thanks, Dais.”

Maybe it’s nothing that she expected, but Daisy already finds herself sad that this might be the last time that she’s going to see Hunter. 

It’s a sad reality of her life: nothing good ever lasts.

(This time is no different.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! It's done! I thought the 5+1 trope would be funny if it was five people... and then a bonus haha. I hope y'all enjoyed the five ways I fixed Daisy's Framework story. :)


End file.
